Sarin SOK Chevening : SOK SARIN

Background

Hello! My name's SOK Sarin. I was born in 1991 in Trorpong Kork Village, Tror Pong Thom Commune, Tram Kork District, Takeo Province, Cambodia locating in Southeast Asia. There are 7 members in my family (parents, 3 elder brothers and a sister).
___Life with learning is the golden key to unlock the door of success.

The Stages of Life in General Education

Childhood Life

Due to the fact that both my father and mother are passionate about education. They really want my siblings and me to get an education as high as possible since they both did not have the opportunity to study even in a secondary school as a result of the Cambodian civil war. They decided to send me to study in grade 1 in 1998 at Trorpang Kork Primary School. Each class consisted of more than 50 students with only one homeroom teacher. It was extremely hard to catch up with the lesson from teachers. Luckily, my dad was able to teach me at home so that I could understand the lesson even better. After having graduated from primary school, I had to pursue my studies at Lower Secondary School which was very far from my house, approximately 6 kilometers so that my parents decided to buy one Khmer bicycle for me. Such a busy life had commenced from that day onwards.

Classroom in Primary School

Since my family was needy, not being able to buy some learning materials and give me supporting money for day-to-day payment, I was forced to work as a cow taker in the forest so that I could find a small amount of money to support myself. After spending 3 years at Secondary School, I was required to take a diplomatic exam. Due to my commitment to studying, I passed this stage and was given a chance to move up to High School (grade 10).

Involving my academic life in this stage was more meaningful even though some challenges had existed, known as less financial support. Unlike other students, I did not have a sufficient amount of money to pay for extra classes, mathematics, physics, or even English subject for example. It was not able to reach the top three in the class of grade 10 and grade 11; however, I was awarded one of the outstanding students in grade 12 due to my dedication and hard work, and even got the 1st rank of the class as well in 2010. I was really impressed and appreciated by many other fellow students, friends, teachers, parents and other people who had known me. More interestingly, I also passed the national exam (Bacc II) in the year of 2010 with a good grade as well.

The Lonely Life, and even the most abstruse life

Other students seemed delighted with their Bacc II result since they had another chance to pursue their study at higher education. Nonetheless, I felt lost along the way and didn't know where to go, what to do as I did not know anyone living in Phnom Penh City. At that time, my father decided to take me to Phnom in order to find a university for me to pursue my bachelor's. After getting some information from two universities known as the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) and the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE). By comparing the tuition fee, my father and I could decide to choose RUPP in order to send me to study there because the fee is affordable (250$/year). Of course, this amount of fee was low for a rich family; however, for a needy family like mine, it was still expensive. As a matter of fact, my parents didn't have sufficient money to pay for that, so they sold one cow with the cost of 200$. For that reason, we could have enough money to pay for one year of school fees at RUPP.

One problem was solved out, but another problem came to my family, and that was a tremendous one. You know what it was? Definitely, it was about the accommodation, having no house to stay for my studies at university. Again, my dad and I decided to go to Phnom Penh to find out any place for me to accommodate. It was known that the rented room was not cheap enough to pay for, approximately 25$/month for a small room. Fortunately, my dad met one monk at RUPP and asked for the accommodation in the pagoda (Wat). The monk said he has a small room in his Kot, being able to sleep only. But we had to get approval from the manager (senior monk) of the pagoda first. Being lucky, lucky and the best day of life, our suggestion was approved, so I was able to stay in that pagoda, but only three months long.

The 1st day of university life commenced, and it was the most memorable day of my life. Having one bicycle to ride from school to pagoda spending around 45 minutes was really amazing and unforgettable. What was the next challenge at university? Absolutely, It was about the English language. The poorest subject of mine was English since I had never learned English for the extra classes like other students. Simultaneously, English was one of the most important subjects in higher education. What should I do to deal with that then? I was recommended by a helpful friend to study a free English class in the Christian church in Phnom Penh. That's the best place for me to enhance my English skills. My English ability had been noticeably improved.

The Vibrant Blue Atmosphere

A year later, It was known that Cambodian Mekong University (CMU) announced to provide scholarships to students. With some knowledge of English learning from church, I registered to take the scholarship exam there, and even luckily passed the exam with the major of Education in TEFL. It was another memorable day for me in my academic life.

Career Life Along with Academic Journeys

Social Activities during Flood Relief with YAC

Associating myself with a job career and study at the same time is vitally mandatory. I actually started my work as a Volunteer Team Leader at Youth Association for Cambodia (YAC) in 2012, being in charge of implementing the project, facilitating and organizing events, providing social services to youth in the targeted location (Kompong Chnang Province) and so on. Simultaneously, I was a Part-time Teacher of English at the Ruchda International School (RIS) as well, preparing a lesson plan, producing teaching materials, managing the classroom... With those jobs, I just earned a small amount of money which could not support my study and daily expenses. However, the money which I earned from my job could just help me cut down some expenses from my family.

CKS Young Scholar 2014

Just 2 years later, in July 2014, The Centre for Khmer Studies called for the application to attend its program. That was an enjoyment movement and remarkable for me, which was called, "Young Research Fellowship Program" based in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The program organized by CKS, Cambodia. There were 15 different young scholars from various countries including Cambodia, America, and French along with an instructor. There were the greatest opportunities to learn from each young scholar from diversity and instructor/advisor in terms of contemporary Cambodian Society and developing research skills. Being selected as one of the Cambodian young scholar representatives, I was very honor.

2014, Teacher Life

In October 2014, after successfully attending the CKS program, I was selected as an Instructor of English at Mahasastra School which is the big and famous school in Cambodia. Meanwhile, I thought that my life seems to be brighter and brighter. I decided to quit my lovely career as a teacher of English and lovely students to whom I spent nearly two years with them in order to pursue my new job at Mahasastra School. Even though my position was the same as the previous one, I still admired myself that I could have such a good opportunity to become a teacher there since there were many candidates applying for this position. My goal started changing a little bit because at the previous goal I just wanted to have a good job in which I can earn sufficient money to support my study. Therefore, I began considering that I need to try as hard as possible to reinforce my experiences and education in order to reach out to my goal set.

Home of English International School life

In 2015, I was given another special prospect to be a teacher of English, and 3 months later to be an Academic & Admin Staff at Home of English International School, Phnom Penh, where my life had become much better due to the fact that I was remarkably advanced myself in terms of practical experiences and knowledge. At there, I could undeniably say that I have learned a lot of new things from my director of studies, HR & Amin Manager, and my colleagues, as well as my students during the period of working there.

In July 2016, it was the most fabulous change in life. Obtaining experience-based knowledge regarding teaching, academic program, and admin skills from diverse institutions led me to move on to another career step which was a School Principal. Then and there, I was 25 years, and the time that I officially graduated with my bachelor's degree. It was widely recognized that not everybody can achieve it at this age whilst I did. Amongst 19 School Principals of American Bridge International School (ABI), I was the 2nd youngest ones. A lot of challenges encountered in this phase due to the fact that I had earned less experience in terms of school management and leadership skills. Nonetheless, It was not a big deal for me as a result of two key terms stated in mind, accountability, and commitment. Only those terms could help me overcome those confronted challenges. Therefore, I can confidently say that age is not a big challenge, but it is an obstacle. My massive success at American Bridge International School was that the number of students increased from zero to over 500 within one year. And being a principal, I could lead my subordinates (teaching and non-teaching staff) to reach out to their goals. Students' qualifications, regardless of how far our location from the urban is, were competent, and even were able to win the championship of many competitions, counting public speaking, writing, and spelling bee competitions. During working at ABI from July 2016-January 2019, I have been given many opportunities to advance me educationally and professionally. To prove that, it is my pleasure to list my key achievements here:

Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation a Trainer, Adjudicator, and Team Leader
of ABI Public Speaking and Debate, by H.E. SY Leang, General Director of ABI

Awarded a Certificate of Application as an Event Team Leader, Trainer, and Adjudicator in the 6^th Annual Public Speaking Competition and 1^st Annual Debate Competition from the Department of English, American Bridge International School_ABI
Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation as a Teacher Trainer in the Annual Teacher Training from the Department of English, American Bridge International School_ABI
Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation as an Event Organizer during the Certificate Delivery Ceremony at CKCC, American Bridge International School_ABI
Awarded a Leadership Award Certificate as a SCHOOL PRINCIPAL from American Bridge International School_ ABI
Awarded a Certificate of Appreciation as an Event Organizer of Public Speaking Competition at CJC.

Group Photo with Mr. President,

MA & Ph. D students at UC

Since it was noticed that my theory-based knowledge and skill were not highly qualified enough to serve the position of School Principal along with my eager beaver towards further education. In 2017, I decided to apply for the competitive examination scholarship at the University of Cambodia; fortunately, I passed it. This was the time that I was able to jump onto another phase of life and met with my personal philosophy "life with learning is the golden key to unlock the door of success". That's eye-opened. studying and working simultaneously is not convenient, but it does not mean it is unbearable. Unless the term "commitment" is in our hearts and mind, "impossibility" can exist. Keeping "commitment" in mind and put it into practice with full accountability is the key to cope with "impossibility". Until now, I have successfully accomplished all coursework for a master's degree with a high standard grade (GPA: 3.54/4.0). Currently, I am undertaking a research thesis and journal paper to fulfill the university requirement of MA.

In February 2019, on account of having a strong passion and dedication to help my society and to be granted the scholarship abroad, majoring in Educational Policy Development, and then to be an independent educational researcher in the next 5 years, I forced myself to leave from my beloved colleagues, and students at American Bridge International School, where I have learned and developed my professions countlessly in order to work as a trainer at NGO. With this new career, I confidently say that I can take part to help many targeted people in the community, especially children due to the fact that my main role is to provide the training, awareness-and raising event regarding Child Protection Policy, Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Internet Safety to ensure that children are safe when being online.

In February 2020, the best chance was given to me, which's to involve myself in higher education as an academic coordinator and instructor. At the same time, I was also selected as a freelance corporate trainer- providing skills training to employees at the companies. In this particular stage, I have noticeably improved my skills and knowledge throughout directly involved with curriculum development, pedagogy implementation, and development, teaching and mentoring, project planning and management, lecturing, delivering skills training, and so forth.

---Keeping Life-Long Learning is my personal philosophy.

Thank You!

Awarded Certificate as a Guest Speaker by Vice President of The University of Cambodia

A Speaker of Panel Discussion in the Fourth Forum for Success, The University of Cambodia

The 4th Forum for Success

Being invited as a Guest Speaker by Pannasastra University of Cambodia to share on the topic of Online Learning Resource Center for the Prevention of Online Child Sexual Exploitation